Technique

The colours are predominately shades of grey on a grey prepared panel. The panel may have been held in a frame or paint-box to be painted, for there is an narrow unpainted margin at left and right.

The brush strokes zig-zag softly across the sky, and are painted irregularly from one side of the panel to the other to convey the pale waves reflecting the sky. The warm purplish greys and greens of the distant banks, with red roofed buildings, and the moored boats (some half painted out on the right) are brushed in with nervous precision with the point of the brush.

It was probably done in one session for the details appear to have been worked in while the background was still wet.

Betsy G. Fryberger commented:

'This oil clearly shows Whistler's method of laying down three horizontal zones of colour, progressively from the warm yellow-brown of the sand to the pale yellow-green of the ocean to the cool greys, touched with blue and white, of the sky. Against this division he then painted, in black and brown, with small animated strokes, the figures and boats at anchor.' 1

Conservation History

Unknown. It is slightly abraded at the edges, probably from the frame. It is in good condition.

Frame

Not original: a Whistler-style frame with reverse profile. 2